1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system, server, server control method, and storage medium for managing information in a device connected to a client apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent advancements in information processing apparatus and network infrastructures have led to the rapid spread of printers, copy machines, facsimile machines, scanners, digital still cameras, digital video cameras, mobile telephones, and devices provided with the a combination of such functions (peripheral devices). Along with this, membership-based services (for example, online photo albums, graphics printing, photo printing, paper models, and so on) that utilize an information processing apparatus and a peripheral processing device connected via a network are being provided by various companies.
Such membership-based services generally provide the appropriate service to a user when a user who purchased a peripheral device or a user who possesses a peripheral device performs member registration. This member registration uses information of the peripheral device the user purchased or the peripheral device the user possesses, such as the manufacturer name, model name, serial number, or the like (device information) so as to register and manage the user (a username) and the device information in association with each other. To be more specific, a single username is allocated to a single peripheral device, and the two are registered and managed in such a manner, thereby preventing the unauthorized use of the service by a third party that has not purchased or does not own the peripheral device.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-236105 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-316843 propose such a technique.
When the peripheral device is, for example, a stationary printer, that printer is generally shared among family members within a household. Therefore, ideally, each family member that shares the printer should perform member registration using a different username (in other words, his or her own username) in the case where that household is to utilize a membership-based service such as an online photo album, graphics printing, or the like.
However, because the conventional techniques can allocate only a single username to a single peripheral device to prevent the unauthorized use of the service by a third party, the individual family members who share the printer cannot perform member registration using their own usernames. As a result, when, for example, the family uses an online photo album service, there is a loss of privacy among the family members.
Furthermore, when a member attempts to log in to the membership-based service using a username created by another member, there are cases where the password set or re-set by that other member is not known, and thus the service, such as an online photo album, graphics printing, and so on cannot be used. In such a case, an easy password could conceivably be set so that the family members do not forget the password, but an easy password has a high probability of being discovered by a third party, this increases the possibility of the extremely serious problem of unauthorized use of the service by a third party.
Finally, when a peripheral device is transferred or resold, the former owner has already performed his or her member registration, therefore, unless that member registration is cancelled (deleted) prior to the peripheral device being transferred or resold, the new owner cannot perform his or her own member registration. The result is that the new owner, despite properly owning the peripheral device, cannot utilize the service.